Guess who ISN’T living under Obamacare’s expensive, onerous rules? That would be Congress

(National Sentinel) Healthcare reform: Just in case some Americans didn’t know or had forgotten, a Florida Republican reminded everyone on Wednesday that, as some of his hypocritical GOP colleagues in the Senate continue to deny Americans real healthcare choice and competition, Congress isn’t playing by Obamacare’s rules because it exempted itself long ago.

As reported by Breitbart News, Rep. Ron DeSantis, in an interview with the network’s SiriusXM program, noted how incredibly unfair it was for Congress to force Americans to comply with a hideously ineffective and grossly expensive law while exempting themselves.

“Republicans have promised for years to repeal and replace Obamacare, yet this effort has seemed to stall in the Senate,” DeSantis said on the floor of the House earlier this week. “The best way to restart the Obamacare repeal process is simple: make Congress live under it. The president can make this happen.

“Make members live under Obamacare as written. If you make them live under Obamacare, my guess is that they will vote to quickly repeal Obamacare,” he continued.

On Breitbart Radio he added: “It’s frustrating because we can put our money where our mouth is in terms of Obamacare because Congress is supposed to be in these exchanges under the law. There was an amendment offered by [Sen. Charles] Grassley [R-Iowa] back in 2010 for that.”

That said, Roll Call reported in September 2013 that Grassley’s amendment originally intended for lawmakers and staff to be able to keep their employer subsidies (even though Obamacare prevents your employer from providing you subsidies to buy insurance through the law’s exchanges). Still, Grassley’s intent was to ensure that Congress and congressional staff had to comply with the very same rules and regulations the American public had to comply with under all Obamacare provisions.

That didn’t happen. Obama’s Office of Personal Management issued a rule in 2013 exempting the lot of them, as Roll Call reported:

“These proposed regulations implement the administrative aspects of switching Members of Congress and congressional staff to their new insurance plans – the same plans available to millions of Americans through the new Exchanges,” OPM Director of Planning and Policy Jon Foley said in a statement.

But OPM separately noted that, unlike other Americans, Members of Congress and staff will continue to keep their employee subsidies under the plan, claiming a legal loophole written into the law itself.

Now, DeSantis is trying to remind Congress and President Donald J. Trump that for years they have not had to live under the same Obamacare rules the rest of us do, which is yet another reason to be angry with GOP senators who voted to get rid of Obamacare on several occasions in the past, but won’t do so now.